Labor attacks PM on first day back

Reporter: Heather Ewart

KERRY O'BRIEN: Welcome to the program.

The Prime Minister returned to Parliament after the winter break today to face an immediate censure motion for allegedly misleading the Parliament over his links to Australian ethanol king Dick Honan before the businessman was awarded millions of dollars in government subsidies.

National security and threats of terrorism were briefly forgotten, as Treasurer Peter Costello and his new opposite number Mark Latham shaped up in a vitriolic first round of what looks being being a long and bitter personal battle for supremacy in the Parliament.

Heather Ewart reports.

HEATHER EWART: They're back ... bright-eyed and bushy tailed and spoiling for a fight.

But first, the bipartisan formalities of swearing in a new Governor-General.

Before the real theatrics could crank up again after the six-week parliamentary break.

MAJOR GENERAL MICHAEL JEFFREY, GOVERNOR-GENERAL: Thank you all for your presence and witness to the great honour that has been bestowed on me today.

HEATHER EWART: And the point to all of this ... whether or not the Prime Minister misled the Parliament last September in response to this question.

ANNA BURKE, LABOR BACKBENCHER: Prime Minister, was the Government contacted by the major Australian producer of ethanol or by any representative of him or his company or the industry association before its decision to impose fuel excise on ethanol?

If so, when?

Was the Government urged to take action to prevent Trafigura Fuels Australia from importing a shipment of ethanol from Brazil at a commercially competitive price?

JOHN HOWARD, PRIME MINISTER: Speaking for myself, I didn't personally have any discussion from my recollection with any of them.

HEATHER EWART: What the opposition wanted was confirmation that the Prime Minister had in fact met the head of ethanol company Manildra, Dick Honan.

A big financial donor to the coalition.

A few days later, the Prime Minister was still sticking to his guns.

JOHN HOWARD: I had not spoken to Dick Honan on this issue.

I had on checking found that a number of letters were received on this general issue, not just on ethanol but on the general issue.

As this heavily edited document recording the meeting and tabled in the Parliament today by the Opposition reveals.

Not only had the Prime Minister met Dick Honan but the fuel excise was discussed.

Labor thinks it finally has an issue to dent the Prime Minister's credibility and dominance in the Parliament.

SIMON CREAN, OPPOSITION LEADER: Isn't it time, Prime Minister, to 'fess up and be man enough to admit that you got it wrong, that you did meet with Mr Honan, but you told the Parliament you hadn't?

JOHN HOWARD: The fact that I met Mr Honan is not in dispute.

It's not in dispute.

It's not in dispute, Mr Speaker.

I'm not the only one that's met Mr Honan, Mr Speaker.

You used to meet him fairly regularly when you were a Minister in the Keating government.

You used to meet him very regularly.

I did not discuss the Trafigura shipment in my meeting on 1 August with Mr Honan.

That was the basis of what I said then and that is the basis of my continuing to reject the absurd claim by the Leader of the Opposition.

HEATHER EWART: But the Trafigura shipment from Brazil was hardly what the Opposition was on about.

Still, it could serve to confuse the public over what already seems a confusing issue.

Repeated points of order from the Opposition asking for relevance failed, so on came the censure motion.

SIMON CREAN: Thank you, Mr Speaker.

I move that this House censure the Prime Minister for his ongoing pattern of deceit.

MARK LATHAM: All of this sounds so familiar.

We've heard these excuses time after time after time.

And there's the false alibi: "nobody told me, I'm only the Prime Minister".

We heard from from kids overboard to Iraq and now to the ethanol scandal, "nobody told me I'm only the Prime Minister.

My personal secretary never came in and said Prime Minister, you actually had a meeting with Dick Honan on the August 1."

Nobody told him that, he's only the Prime Minister.

JOHN HOWARD: The case against me is that I misled the House because I didn't disclose the meeting I had on 1 August despite the fact that I was asked a question about the conduct of the Government regarding some imports from Brazil which were not known to me or to anybody in the Government when that meeting took place on 1 August.

Well, I would say, Mr Speaker, that if that were the case before a police court, it would be dismissed with costs, Mr Speaker.

HEATHER EWART: In fact, that wasn't the only line of Opposition questioning back in September.

The Prime Minister was clearly asked about a meeting with the ethanol chief, Dick Honan, and during three days of questioning in the Parliament, could have cleared the matter up then.

He didn't.

SIMON CREAN: There's not a word that you can believe from this Prime Minister because the pattern of deceit continues to emerge.

HEATHER EWART: At least that's how the Opposition hopes it will appear to the public as it tries to link this issue with the children overboard affair and Government claims of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Whether the strategy hits the mark is another matter.

Transcripts on this website are created by an independent transcription service. The ABC does not warrant the accuracy of the transcripts.